Breaching the EU Governance by Decompression

This conceptual paper introduces the concept of decompression as a specific process distinguished from disintegration. It argues that the difference between disintegration and decompression is not intensity but quality. Decompression is not a softer version of disintegration but a distinctive phenomenon. We will demonstrate that Euroscepticism, a necessary condition of disintegration, does not play a role in decompression. We define decompression as a sudden violation of an EU rule or rules by a member state, which leads to immediate disruption of shared trust in a basic EU policy or principle. In the case of a crisis, we can see a ‘compression’, pressure within the EU to find a common solution. Decompression is a relaxation of this pressure triggering the rejection or non-application of an EU policy or principle in reaction to changes external to the political equilibrium established among the levels of the EU and the member states’ polities.